Hindus urge Madge to create more Sanskrit peace numbers on her 53rd b’day

Nevada: The Hindus are asking singer Madonna, who celebrated her 53rd birthday recently and who gave Sanskrit “Shanti/Ashtangi” in 1998, to come out with more Sanskrit peace numbers. “World needs more peace prayers and efforts at peacemaking now than it needed in 1998,” said Hindu statesman Rajan Zed in Nevada (USA) on Monday. Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that “Shanti/Ashtangi” Sanskrit number from album “Ray of Light”, whose lyrics included “Om Shanti”, mainly focused around peace. Her “Cyber-Raga” track, released in 2000 as a part of album “Music”, was also an adapted version of a Sanskrit peace prayer and included a variation of “Hari Om” mantra. Wishing her best on entering her 54th year, Zed urged Madonna to chant more Sanskrit peace mantras in her future albums. He also commended her for taking up the cause of European Roma (Gypsies). Sanskrit is a storehouse of peace prayers, which needed to be explored further by popular culture in order to bring peace to the troubled world, he said. “Ray of Light” won four Grammy Awards and sold about 20 million copies. “Music”, which debuted at number one in over 23 countries, has sold about 15 million copies. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of Indo-European languages. “Om”, the mystical syllable containing the universe, is used in Hinduism to introduce and conclude religious work. “Shanti” means peace and “Hari” is Lord Vishnu. Hinduism is oldest and third largest religion of the world with about a billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. ANI